Join us at Laurier

Becoming a Golden Hawk means more than just cheering on our (really good) varsity teams – it means being a student who cares about your community, who works hard in the classroom, and who takes advantage of all the learning opportunities that can happen outside the classroom, too.

Application Process

Once your application is received by Laurier from OUAC, you will be emailed login information for Laurier’s Online Audition Portal (starting Dec. 15).

Laurier’s Online Audition Portal requires you to submit:

Your contact information.

Your preferred choice of audition date. You will rank three dates from a set list.

Contact information for one reference (reference will be contacted by Laurier via email to complete a reference questionnaire).

Your current academic information.

Details on your musical background and career goals.

An optional portfolio composed and/or original music may be submitted in the portal through video or audio links.

$60 audition fee (payable by credit card).

Once this information and your $60 audition fee is submitted through the Online Audition Portal you will receive a confirmation email with your audition date and time.

You should audition in person, but if you live further than 400 km from Laurier, you can audition by video. If you choose this option in the Laurier Audition Portal, you’ll receive instructions from our Auditions Coordinator on how to prepare and submit your video.

If you have significant proficiency on a second instrument and would consider enrolling as a major on either, you should consider auditioning on both instruments. An additional fee of $60 will be charged for a second audition.

What to Expect on your Audition Day

Arrive and park at Wilfrid Laurier University. Head towards the Faculty of Music, John Aird Centre building. We suggest arriving 30 minutes early.

Immediately check-in with an Audition Assistant. Signs in the main entrance of the Faculty of Music will list which floor our check-in table is on.

Once you check-in our Audition Assistant will lead you to a practice room so you can warm up.

We encourage you to arrive at the audition room 10 minutes prior to your audition time.

You audition will take roughly 15-20 minutes and will also include a short discussion with the panel of faculty members.

Bring one copy (photocopies are acceptable) of your music for the audition panel.

Professional accompanists are provided (no extra fee) by the Faculty of Music. You must provide a copy of the music for the accompanist. If you prefer, you may bring your own accompanist.

Immediately following your audition, you will be led to your interview by an Audition Assistant. You will be interviewed by a faculty member who was not on your audition panel. Interviews last roughly 10-15 minutes.

Your theory and ear training test must be completed on your audition day. You have the option to write your theory test at 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. You must write your test at the time that does not conflict with your scheduled audition time. There is no time limit to write the test. Most students complete the test in 1.5 hours.

Example: If your audition was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. you would have to write the 2 p.m. theory test.

After Your Audition

Most applicants will hear from us once all audition candidates for their instrument have been auditioned. In some cases, this may not be until late April or May.

If your audition is successful, you will receive an email from the Faculty of Music recommending you for admission. This is not a guarantee of your acceptance. Providing that you meet all academic admission requirements of the university and you have received a recommendation from the Faculty of Music, Laurier’s Recruitment and Admissions Office will send you your official offer of admission.

If your audition is unsuccessful, you will be automatically considered for an alternate offer of admission to another Laurier program and contacted by Recruitment & Admissions.

Regardless of outcome, the Faculty of Music will contact all students by email with their audition results.

Theory and Ear Training Test

All students, no matter their academic or musical standings, will write the theory and ear training test on the day of their audition. The test is designed to assess a candidate’s knowledge of theory rudiments and to gauge ear training skills for possible advanced standing credit.

Our test will be based on material found in the Royal Conservatory of Music's Level 8 Theory, formerly Advanced Rudiments.

Laurier offers online theory tutoring classes (via Skype) which can help prepare you to write our theory and ear training test. Contact choosemusic@wlu.ca for more details.

Rudiments

Values of notes and rests

Rhythmic patterns

Accidentals

Intervals

Key signatures

Harmonic function of triads

Meanings of time signatures

Clefs

Enharmonic equivalents

Scales

Triads

Dictation

Intervals: melodic and harmonic

Triad colours

One-measure rhythmic patterns

Four-measure melodies

Rhythm dictation

Melodic dictation

Keyboard Facility Requirements

Piano proficiency is not tested at your audition; however, faculty may discuss Laurier’s keyboard facility requirements during your audition or interview.

All Bachelor of Music students (except those whose major instrument is piano) must meet Laurier’s keyboard facility standards. Failure to meet these standards by the beginning of a student’s third year can result in withdrawal from the program.

All incoming Bachelor of Music students will be required to sign up for a keyboard placement interview during Orientation Week to discuss Laurier’s keyboard facility standards and in some cases to prove they have met our requirements.

During this interview students can:

Provide proof of completing a Grade 6 (or higher) Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) piano exam in the form of an official certificate or examination results, which must have been completed within the previous three calendar years.

Discuss their current level of piano knowledge and discuss Laurier’s keyboard facility standards and optional workshop.

Keyboard Facility Workshop

If students are unable to pass the keyboard facility exam or do not opt to attempt the test we recommend they take the Laurier keyboard facility workshop. This workshop is offered to assist students to prepare for the equivalency exam, which is administered as part of the workshop. This workshop does not count towards academic credit. This workshop runs each term and may be taken for up to four terms (i.e. up to the end of second year).

Should you decide to pursue piano studies on your own in lieu of taking the workshop, you must arrange to retake the keyboard facility exam or present a RCM Grade 6 piano certificate before you enter your third year of study.

Ken Murray Entrance Scholarship Application Instructions

Ken Murray is a long-time resident of Kitchener-Waterloo who has made outstanding contributions to the Arts and the recognition of talented youth.

Laurier’s $5000 Ken Murray Entrance Scholarship is awarded to an incoming full-time Faculty of Music student auditioning on an orchestral instrument or the piano and is applied towards the winning student's first year tuition.

Instructions

Submit a recent video recording of a movement from either a concerto or sonata with accompaniment by March 15th. A jury of faculty will review all submissions and make its final recommendation to the Dean who will inform the winner by email.

Recording Your Video

Use a digital video camera or quality video and sound equipment.

If you are using a high definition camera, set it to a lower resolution to save time when uploading to YouTube (360p or 480p is fine).

Where possible set the sound quality to better or best stereo. Surround sound is not required.

With video cameras, it sounds best when the camera is 10 to 20 feet away. If the room is more acoustically live, placing the camera closer is best.

NO EDITING IS ALLOWED. Your submission must be recorded as one uninterrupted video without editing.

Announce at the beginning of your recording:

Your name & Laurier ID number

Say; “This recording is for the Ken Murray Entrance Scholarship”

Before you play announce the name and composer of your piece.

Submitting Your Video

Sign up for a YouTube account or sign in to an existing account.

Once you are logged into your YouTube account click on the arrow in the top right hand corner to begin uploading your video.

Your title should be entered as your name and Laurier ID number.

Set your video as unlisted from the drop down menu. Do not set it to Private or Public.

An “Unlisted” video is only accessible to those you share the URL with.

Select done button. This will create a URL (also known as the link or web-address) which you can copy and paste into your browser to test.

Include the URL into an email and send it to musicauditions@wlu.ca. All submissions must be received by email by March 15th.

When we receive the URL for your video, we will test to make sure it works and confirm with you by email. If you do not get this confirmation from us within a week of sending us the URL, please contact us by phone at 519-884-0710 ext. 2956